Channing Frye is our MVP (most valuable presence)? No way...

Channing Frye is the epitome of "one trick pony".  He can't play post defense, he doesn't offer help defense on a regular basis, can't rebound worth a damn and can't even get his own shot against a smaller defender in the post.  If he doesn't hit at least two 3s in a game, I wonder why he's even on the court.  Especially at the end of every game, in lieue of Lopez.

So how is it that Channing Frye in the Suns' leader, and 13th overall in the entire NBA for chrissake, in regularized adjusted plus/minus for the entire 2009-2010 season?!?!?  

I know, I know.  At the mere mention of obscure stats, your eyes have begun to glaze over.  Take another sip of coffee, or swig of that Monster drink in your hand.  Or, you've already decided that it's a BS stat, cuz there's no way Channing Frye is the most valuable Sun. 

In honor of this weekend's Geekapolooza somewhere on the east coast, do me a favor and keep reading.  Click around on that link.  Very interesting, easy-to-read lists.  It's stats like these that quantify the value of guys like Shane Battier and Trevor Ariza and Quinton Ross and ...well, Channing Frye. 

If you're a stat geek, here's the full commentary on regularized adjusted plus/minus.  In a nutshell, it tells us how successful the team is while you're on the court, as opposed to an average replacement player.  Reportedly, it's twice as good as 'adjusted plus/minus' (used by 82games.com) which was already twice as good as the plus/minus number now provided in daily box scores.  It is this kind of advanced stat that teams like Dallas and Houston use to pick out gems in free agency and trades (Houston: Battier, Dallas: Brendan Haywood).  It also tells us that LeBron James is the best in the game, but you already knew that.

Regularized adjusted plus/minus factors in the other players on the court.  If you play all your minutes with LeBron James, your plus/minus is artificially high.  Likewise, if you're the best player on the New Jersey Nets your plus/minus is artificially low.   So this stat smoothes all that out, somehow, magically, to tell us... what, exactly?

Here is Mark Cuban's take:  

"...these numbers don't reflect necessarily the best players in the league, but what they do reflect is the players that are being best put in a position to succeed and are delivering. When their teams have a need, they deliver..."

And that's Channing Frye.

How?  I guess by spotting up on the 3-pt line, he pulls a low-post defender out of the paint.  Or forces the opposing team into going smaller than their normal lineup (which results in bad defensive rotations due to unfamiliar lineups).  

Maybe that's why he's always on the damn court at the end of the game, instead of Robin Lopez (who incidentally is a positive influence on the bottom line too, along with Steve Nash, Richardson and Goran Dragic).

Channing is NOT our best player.  Nor is he a quality, all-around rotation player that any team could use in any system.

I'm still confused how all this works out, but it does prove that Channing Frye is absolutely PERFECT for this system.

And he's our best chance to win.  I guess.